English Renaissance poets

ROBERT SOUTHWELL, 

 was an English Jesuit and poet, son of Richard Southwell of Horsham St Faith's, Norfolk, he was born in 1560/61, died in 1595 at the ripe old age of thirty-three. He was canonized – took a long time, in 1970. His family on his mother's side was related to the Shelleys', the other English poet. By this time the Catholic faith was proscribed in England – English Catholics, had to go into hiding. If they wanted a catechetic education they had to leave the country. He was sent very young to the Roman Catholic college at Douai, and thence to Paris, where he was placed under a Jesuit father, Thomas Darbyshire. In 1580 he joined the Society of Jesus, after a two years' novitiate, passed mostly at Tournay.

It was while studying at Douay that he first met some Jesuits, including the famous Leonard Lesius (spelling), a great Jesuit theologian, who's best known work is on the 'Attributes of God'. Then he went on to Paris and by this time, he was just seventeen.

After six years of successful labor, Southwell was arrested. He was in the habit of visiting the house of Richard Bellamy, who lived near Harrow and was under suspicion on account of his connection with Jerome Bellamy, who had been executed for sharing in Anthony Babington's plot. One of the daughters, Anne Bellamy, was arrested and imprisoned in the gatehouse of Holborn. She revealed Southwell's movements to Richard Topcliffe, who immediately arrested him. He was imprisoned at first in Topcliffe's house, where he was repeatedly put to the torture in the vain hope of extracting evidence about other priests.

Transferred to the gatehouse at Westminster, he was so abominably treated that his father petitioned Elizabeth that he might either be brought to tria1 and put to death, if found guilty, or removed in any case from "that filthy hole." Southwell was then lodged in the Tower, but he was not brought to tria1 until February 1595. There is little doubt that much of his poetry, none of which was published during his lifetime, was written in prison. On the 10th of February 1595 he was tried before the King's Bench on the charge of treason, and was hanged at Tyburn on the following day. On the scaffold he denied any evil intentions towards the Queen or her government.

Southwell's poetry is euphuistic (an elegant Elizabethan literary style marked by excessive use of balance, antithesis, and alliteration and by frequent use of similes drawn from mythology and nature) in manner. But his frequent use of antithesis and paradox, the varied and fanciful imagery by which he realizes religious emotion, though they are indeed in accordance with the poetical conventions of his time, are also the unconstrained expression of an ardent and concentrated imagination. His poetry is not, however, all characterized by this elaboration. Immediately preceding this very piece in his collected works is a carol written in terms of the utmost simplicity.

There are two books, prose writings, that Robert Southwell wrote that are worth reading. They were written in 16th century English but, powerful, written to encourage his fellow Catholics to remain firm in their faith. The one is called 'Mary Magdalene's Funeral Tears', 'Mary Magdalene's Funeral Tears.' And the other one is called 'Epistle of Comfort. His two outstanding poems are 'The Burning Babe and 'The Virgin Mary to Christ On The Cross.And now, I give you "The Burning Babe"

THE BURNING BABE.

From St. Peter's Complaint.

As I in hoary winter's night stood shivering in the snow, Surpris'd I was with sudden heat which made my heart to glow; And lifting up a fearful eye to view what fire was near, A pretty Babe all burning bright did in the air appear; Who, scorched with excessive heat, such floods of tears did shed As though his floods should quench his flames which with his tears were fed. "Alas!" quoth he, "but newly born, in fiery heats I fry, Yet none approach to warm their hearts or feel my fire but I! My faultless breast the furnace is, the fuel wounding thorns, Love is the fire, and sighs the smoke, the ashes shame and scorns; The fuel Justice layeth on, and Mercy blows the coals, The metal in this furnace wrought are men's defiled souls, For which, as now on fire I am to work them to their good, So will I melt into a bath to wash them in my blood." With this he vanish'd out of sight and swiftly shrunk away, And straight I called unto mind that it was Christmas day.

(Posted by Diogo Oliveira)

Beowulf

 first page of Beowulf in Cotton Vitellius A. xv
Alliterations in Beowulf text:
"Grendel came creeping, accursed of God"

And rushed in rage o’er the shining floor.”

“A host of kinsmen. His heart rejoiced”

“To feast his fill of flesh of men.”

“But Beowulf grappled and gripped him hard"

Mariluce Lemos

My poetry

Tonight

Tonight I wish your look
In flames of your body to explore the folly of reason
I miss you
Throughout your body to go I wish I could drown
Tonight
Will be the night
 which I can love you
Tonight
Tonight
Through my fingers want to feel you
And at  very core of your being
You take me
You have me
Tonight
Tonight
Celebrating the incessant desire for you
Inexhaustible source of pleasure
Intoxicating is the desire to be
And have

Nothing will be impossible
Because
Tonight
Tonight
I'll be all you need
And nothing can stop us
cause everything we need and we
have

is
Tonight

Mariluce lemos

What is poetry

Poetry (from the [Greek] 'poiesis'/ποίησις [poieo/ποιεω], a making: a forming, creating, or the art of poetry, or a poem) is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning. Poetry is more than this, is expression, love, feelings and a way to express what's hidden in the way that you agree.

Mariluce lemos

Poetry to me is:

More than chosen words;

More than ideas and feelings;

More than happy or pain;

Poetry breaks the chains that put in jail our minds!

A. D. M. Leão - 02/04/2011

By Antonio Deodato

A little bit about Shakespeare and the Elizabethan Era

A Shakespeare's probable authentic image.

Source: guardian.co.uk

Like Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) is also considered one of the most important writers in the history of English literature. As we saw in class today, he wrote a total of 37 plays – including history plays, comedies and tragedies – and 154 sonnets. He also wrote 5 poems which are much longer in extension than the sonnets. The most well-known of these poems are Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece, both with erotic content.

Shakespeare was born in a town called Stratford-upon-Avon, at a time in which the English language was gaining more prestige in Europe between the other European languages. It was the period known as the Elizabethan Era, since England was being governed by Queen Elizabeth I (1533 – 1603), a very important character in the history of England.  

Besides being extremely skillful in the task of ruling the country, Queen Elizabeth I was also a powerful and bright woman who encouraged intellectual activities. Because she was particularly fond of arts in general, this period is known as the one in which drama and poetry flourished in England. This fact was particularly good for William Shakespeare, since he was a playwright who knew how to benefit from this favorable setting and managed to become very successful with his works.       

Here is the complete site for the image I used in this post: 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/mar/15/shakespeare-lost-play-double-falsehood

 

Posted by Fernanda Pedrecal

WHAT IS Y GODDODIN ?

Welsh literature has extended in an unbroken tradition from about the middle of the 6th century to the present day, but, except for two or three short pieces, all pre-Norman poetry has survived only in 12th to 13th century manuscripts. Welsh had developed from the older Brythonic by the middle of the 6th century. In the Historia Brittonum (c. 800) references are made to Welsh poets who, if the synchronism is correct, sang in the 6th century. Works by two of them, Taliesin and Aneirin, have survived. Taleisin wrote odes, or awadlau, in praise of the warlike deeds of his lord, Urien of Rheged, a kingdom in present day south west Scotland and north west England. 

To Aneirin is attributed a long poem, Y Gododdin, commemorating in elegies an ill-starred expedition sent from Gododdin, the region where Edinburgh stands today, to take Catraeth (Catterick, North Yorkshire) from the invading Saxons. The background, inspiration, and social conventions of the poems of Taleisin and Aneirin are typically heroic, the language is direct and simple, and the expression terse and vigorous. These poems, and others that have not been preserved, set standards for later ages. The alliterative verse and internal rhyme found here were developed by the 13th century into the intricate system of consonant and vowel correspondence and internal rhyme, called cynghanedd. 

At the very end of Aneirin's Y Gododdin is the first refering to King Arthur by name. Apart from that, there is a reference to a 'boar', Artos (the Roman version of Arthur) means 'boar', in various tales he is refered to in the same manner. 
Apart from that, there's mentioning of 'Peredur' who also shows up in The Mabinogion and who is now generally accepted as Perceval. The song of Peredur is also known as being one of the "Arthurian Mabonigi". 
However, let's not forget that Taliesin and Aneirin lived in the same time and it is acceptable to presume that they knew each other.

THE POET ANEIRIN

The poet is well attested in the early period, being mentioned in the section of the Historia Brittonum which embodies northern traditions and the names of the four kings Urien, Rhydderch, Gwallog and Morgant.

In the stanza entitled 'The Reciter's Prologue', Aneirin is described as the 'son of Dwywai'. This allusion to Dwywai links Aneirin with the royal houses of the North, for according the genealogies a Dwywai was the daughter of Lleynnog and therefore the sister of Gwallog. She was also said to be the wife of Dunod Fwr and the mother of Deinioel, the patron saint of Bangor (Wales), who according to the Annales Cambriae died in 584. If Aneirin was the younger brother of Deinioel his dates could fit very well with those of a poet composing in the late 6th or early 7th century.

However, Aneirin is an obscure figure. It is probable that all we can be reasonably certain of knowing concerning him is that he existed, that he functioned as a poet in the kingdom of the Gododdin, and that an early date in the authorship of an elegiac poem on the warriors who fell at the battle of Catraeth was attributed to him.

THE POEM

Man's mettle, youth's years, courage for combat:
Swift thick-maned stallions beneath a fine stripling's thighs,
Broad lightweight buckler on a slim steed's crupper,
Glittering blue blades, gold-bordered garments.
Never will there be bitterness between us:
Rather I make of you song that will praise you.
The blood-soaked field before the marriage-feast,
Foodstuff for crows before the burial.
A dear comrade, Owain; vile, his cover of crows.
Ghastly to me that ground, slain, Marro's only son.

Diademed, to the fore at all times, breathless before a maid, he earned mead.
Rent the front of his shield, when he heard the war-cry, he spared none he pursued.
He'd not turn from a battle till blood flowed, like rushes hewed men who'd not flee.
At court the Gododdin say there came before Madawg's tent on his return
But a single man in a hundred.

Diademed, border guard, setter of snares, a sea-eagle's his rush when aroused,
His bargain was kept to the letter.
He performed as planned, was not routed, before Gododdin's forces was shunned,
Pressing hard for the land of Manawyd.
He would spare neither mail-shirt nor shield; none could, on mead he was nourished,
Ward off the stroke of Cadfannan.

 by Amanda Soares Aleluia

http://www.missgien.net/celtic/gododdin/poem.html